


Haus of Leaves

by ObscureReference



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Horror, Gen, Horror, Spooky Haus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-23
Updated: 2016-10-23
Packaged: 2018-08-24 02:40:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8353681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ObscureReference/pseuds/ObscureReference
Summary: A house (Haus) of shifting geometry.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I made a [post](http://someobscurereference.tumblr.com/post/151194492565/1-i-love-chowders-face-i-cannot-believe-they) a while back about the Haus being spoopy and changing geometry.
> 
> I love Halloween.

Sometimes Bitty surrounded himself with so much baking that he swore he was going crazy.

Either Bitty or someone else with a grocery list went shopping just about every other day, and there was always a list of what they needed to stock up taped to the fridge. The staple baking supplies—butter, flour, sugar, etc—were always being used, and half the team had a new craving every couple days. There was a constant demand for new supplies. That said, with the amount they went shopping, there was always a little confusion about what they were actually out of. It was easy to get mixed up sometimes.

There were days when Bitty reached for the flour and found the container empty, cursing himself for having forgotten. Those days he phoned whoever he knew was out of class and asked them to “please _run down to the store real quick, I’ll save you an extra slice_ ” of whatever he had planned on baking. Or sometimes he would walk down the Stop N’ Shop himself, headphones in his ears and a relaxing walk ahead of him. It helped clear his head.

Then there were days he _knew_ they had just stocked up on something, _knew_ what he was looking for was somewhere in the kitchen, and just couldn’t find it.

“I _know_ we just bought some cinnamon,” he muttered to himself. He knew for a _fact_ he’d put it here. He could remember it clear as day.

It wasn’t like he ever put the spices anywhere _but_ the spice cabinet; when it came to the kitchen, everything had its place. He had already searched the other drawers just in case he’d zoned out while putting the groceries away too. It was a fruitless search. The cinnamon was either in the spice cabinet, or they were out.

Bitty _knew_ he wasn’t out.

He scanned the spice cabinet for the twentieth time and came up with nothing. He shut the cabinet door and sighed.

Maybe he was misremembering. Maybe he hadn’t gotten the cinnamon like he thought he had. Maybe he had put it in the wrong drawer. Maybe Lardo had taken it for a project.

Maybe he just wasn’t looking hard enough.

He opened the cabinet again. There, nestled between the sugar and thyme, was the cinnamon. Bitty grabbed it and examined the label. It was exactly the bottle he remembered buying the day before.

He shook his head to clear it. He’d just missed the container the first time around, that’s all.

 

(just like the other hundred times something had gone missing.

at least the cinnamon had shown up again.)

 

 

 

 

She would never admit it, but the Haus gave off some pretty creepy vibes sometimes.

If it were any other place, Lardo probably would have been a bit more enthusiastic about scary movie night. But the Haus was just unsettling enough to make her reluctant.

It wasn’t that scary movies freaked her out, though there were one or two that got her good. Usually those were the ones with the most realistic face makeup and ugliest monster transformations. And it wasn’t that the Haus groaned at night because her old dorm had done the same, and after the fifth night she listened to Holster loudly swear over the sounds of _Breaking Bad_ playing one floor above her, it was more annoying than anything.

But sometimes.

Sometimes she just didn’t like it.

Her room was at a weird angle or something, and the light didn’t stream in through the windows quite right. She ended up working on her projects in the art building more often than not, so the weird lighting wasn’t a huge deal, but her room always felt dim and stuffy when she returned. Even the deliciousness of Bitty’s pies could only keep goosebumps from crawling up her back for so long when she sat in her room.

Whatever. She ate in the kitchen more often than not anyway.

So sometimes it could be a creepy house. But it was just a house.

 

~~(a creepy haus)~~

 

(lardo peered into connecting bathroom and counted the tiles. she shook her head. blinked hard. counted the tiles.

every time she opened the door, she swore the distance between her room and Chowder’s got just a bit longer.)

 

 

 

 

Nursey’s phone buzzed.

_From: Skipper 1_

_me & holtzy r gonna b out late 2nite, b back l8tr_

_From: Skipper 2_

_ransom I said I was sorry, you can stop texting like that now_

_From: Skipper 1_

_i hav no idea wut ur tlking abt_

_From: Skipper 2_

_Ransom, pls_

_From: Skipper 1_

_pls wut_

_From: C(howder)_

_Guys I’m in class!!_

_From: Lards_

_you brought this on yourself, holtz_

_From: Bits_

_Chowder just turn your phone on silent_

_From: C(howder)_

_2 late…_

 

There was a crying emoji attached. He had probably gotten called out by the professor. Nursey felt a wince of sympathy for his favorite goalie.

There was a pause. Then Nursey’s phone buzzed again.

_From: Skipper 1_

_I’ll txt when we’re on our way back_

Nursey thought, _Thanks_. He didn’t respond.

He made plans not to stop by the Haus tonight. Maybe bothering Dex at the library was a good idea.

 

(with ransom and holster gone in the evening, haus would be empty. it was never a good idea to be caught in the haus alone. too creepy.)

 

 

 

Holster eyed the bunk beds. He squinted. He took a long look at the distance between the window and the door behind him. He even turned his head sideways for good measure. Nothing changed.

A paper ball hit him in the cheek. Ransom raised an eyebrow quizzically.

“What’s up, man?” he said. “You’ve been staring into space for, like, twenty minutes.”

Holster shook his head. “Nothing.”

It was just that he could have _sworn_ the stairs to the attic used to enter from the other side of the room.

But that would be crazy.

 

(he noticed that ransom stared at the door sometimes too, his head cocked, like he was trying to puzzle something out. holster never brought up the way his head spun every time he walked into their room, like his mind just couldn’t wrap around what he was seeing.)

 

 

 

 

Whiskey glared at the front door. It had locked him out again.

_Fuck you,_ he thought. He didn’t dare say it out loud.

The house didn’t want him. That was fine. He didn’t want it either.

He turned heel and walked away.

 

(the lax guys were assholes, but at least they didn’t have the monster house.)

 

 

 

 

It would be a lie to say the Haus didn’t freak Dex the fuck out.

It wasn’t natural. It was a fucked up maze, and he wasn’t going to let it trap him there.

He thought it was just old at first. He though it had been all in his head. When he’d take Betsy out for repairs, the empty hole in the wall where she usually sat looked more like a gaping wound than an oven slot. Nobody else ever said anything. He kept his head down and tried not to look. He ignored the weird shit, the things that didn’t quite align. If nobody else brought it up, he sure wasn’t going to.

Then near the end of freshman year, it tried to trap him.

He had knocked on Bitty’s door to return something he couldn’t even recall now, and when nobody answered, he had shrugged and walked back downstairs.

Except instead of walking to the first floor, Dex found himself off the bottom step of the staircase leading to the attic. He blinked and turned around. At the top of the stairs, the door to Ransom and Holster’s room stood wide open. The light to the attic looked awfully bright. He couldn’t see past it.

Dex carefully stepped away and turned the corner, once again climbing down the staircase that led to the first floor.

Then he stepped off the bottom attic step. The door to the attic stood open behind him. His mouth felt stuffed with cotton.

He walked down the stairs to the first floor again. His ears popped. The door to the attic stood open behind him.

He tried opening the door to Bitty’s room first, then Jack’s. Neither budged. The Reading Room window was somehow newly painted shut. He didn’t even consider taking the attic stairs up.

Six times he walked down the main staircase. Six times he ended up on the second floor landing.

The seventh time, when he finally made it to the ground floor, Bitty had seen the wild look in his eye and froze. Dex had all but sprinted outside. He didn’t come back for a week and even then, only reluctantly.

By sophomore year, Dex was finding more and more excuses to avoid the Haus.

 

(“are you gonna grab some of those cookies bitty made or what?” nursey asked.

dex didn’t look up from the table at the library. he shrugged weakly. “maybe later.”

“whatever, man. at least let me have your half.”)

 

 

 

 

“Guys?” Chowder called out for the fifth time in a row? “Anybody here?”

Silence was his answer. The Haus was empty.

He checked his phone again. Nothing from the group chat said anybody was going out today, not this early in the day. The clock on his bedside table said it was ten in the morning when he had awoken. His phone had agreed. The sunlight steaming in through the window _looked_ like it was late morning, at least.

Part of him wondered if that was true though, if the clocks and the sun were a trick of the eye. Sometimes it was hard to tell when you were in the Haus. He shivered.

“Guys?”  he repeated, just a little quieter than before. His voice oddly didn’t seem to carry through the halls.

When Chowder tried the front door, it didn’t budge.

 

(jack found him, later, on his bed, his eyes glassy with unshed tears. chowder wiped them away as soon as the door slammed open. jack was breathing heavy, and his shoulders sagged with relief when he saw chowder.

“sorry—“ he gasped. “bitty and i—everyone—there was brunch, and we forgot—”

“it’s okay,” chowder said, even though he was shaking. “it’s okay.”

later he heard jack whisper to shitty that he had opened the door nine times before he found chowder on the other side. chowder pretended like he hadn’t heard and that the cold pit in his stomach didn’t exist.)

 

 

 

 

Ransom jumped at the creak in the floorboards and spun around. There was nobody there. Nobody was sneaking up behind him like he’d thought. He marginally relaxed.

The giggle over his shoulder had him twisting in place only to find more open air. He was alone in the attic. Physically, at least.

There was more giggling in his ear, and this time Ransom refused to turn around. There was a heavy breath and then an inhale, like somebody was about to say something, and Ransom slapped his palms over his ears to block out the sound. The activity in the Haus had gotten worse lately. He was _not_ messing around with the ghosts tonight.  

“Holtzy!” Ransom shouted, nearly tripping over his own feet in his haste to flee their shared bedroom. Holster had said he was going to take a shower, right? It was totally cool for Ransom to sit on the toilet and wait for him to finish. Probably. He was going to do it either way.

He moved so fast he skipped the last few steps on the staircase.

 

(“hey, jen?” mandy whispered, her voice shaky, her head pillowed in jenny’s lap.

jenny cracked an eye open. her voice was equally soft. she didn’t like it when her voice echoed through the endless halls. “yeah?”

“how long have we been here?” mandy asked

jenny pressed her lips together. she didn’t have an answer. mandy choked on a sob.)

**Author's Note:**

> Dex's spooky incident at the end of his freshman year explains why he was missing from the comic for several updates in Bitty's third year. Also Chowder being alone in the Haus is from the notes/extra where Jack and Bitty are out at brunch with everyone and there Chowder is alone going ???? because nobody told him where they were. 
> 
> Happy Halloween!


End file.
